brought, from almost every quarter of the world, to bear upon the reality of this event, is of the most conclusive and irresistible kind; and every investigation, whether etymological or historical, which has been made concerning heathen rites and traditions, has constantly added to its force, no less than to its extent.

dence of which, with the narrative of Moses, it will require no common degree of skeptical hardihood to deny. These we shall now shortly adduce; beginning with those which are more distant and obscure, and then stating those which are more remarkably and circumstantially coincident with the Mosaic record.

cured, and the delirium will cease of itself. In various kinds of fever, and in various stages of the same fevers, the cessation of the delirium is the consequence of very different applications and modes of treatment. In the early stages of fever, in inflammation of the brain, delirium may be expected to cease on the vigorous employment of the antiphlogistic plan, copious blood-letting, the appli- Besides, however, the allusions to the deluge in cation of cold, purging, and the strictest attention the mythology and religious ceremonies of the to rest and quietude. On the other hand, at the Heathen, there is a variety of traditions concerning advanced period of continued fever, with low mut-it still more direct and circumstantial, the coincitering delirium, the patient may be roused from his stupor, by questions distinctly put to him; by being allowed to see the objects in the room about him; and by the use of strong stimulants, as wine, spirits, ether; and opium so managed as to produce not its narcotic, but stimulating effect. In the diseases of childbed, delirium is always an occurrence much to be deprecated; and the mode of dealing with it We are informed by one of the circumnavigators in such cases, may be gathered from what has been of the world, who visited the remote island of Otamentioned above. We must try to diminish ex-heite, that some of the inhabitants, being asked citement where it is too great; to rouse and interest the feelings where the debility is evident; and it may be wise to admit the short visits of judicious friends; and to present the child to the mother in the melancholy case, when the instinct of maternal affection appears for the time suspended. The delirium of typhus sometimes lasts long after every other bad symptom is removed, so that we might be led to fear there is permanent derangement; but in time, the intellect is completely restored; and the same may be said of the derangement which sometimes follows delivery; though the period of recovery is often delayed, and many months of anxious expectation are passed by the friends of the patient.

DELUGE. In Theology, signifies in general any great inundation; but more particularly that universal flood by which the whole inhabitants of this globe were destroyed, except Noah and his family. According to the most approved systems of chronology, this remarkable event happened in the year 1656 after the creation, or about two thousand three hundred and forty-eight before the Christian æra.

concerning their origin, answered, that their supreme God having, a long time ago, been angry, dragged the earth through the sea, when their island was broken off and preserved.

In the island of Cuba, the people are said to believe, that "the world was once destroyed by water, by three persons," evidently alluding to the three sons of Noah. It is even related, that they have a tradition among them, that an old man, knowing that the deluge was approaching, built a large ship, and went into it with a great number of animals; and that he sent out from the ship a crow, which did not immediately come back, staying to feed on the carcasses of dead animals, but afterwards returned with a green branch in its mouth.

The author who gives the above account likewise affirms, that it was reported by the inhabitants of Castella del Oro, in Terra Firma, that during a universal deluge, one man, with his children, were the only persons who escaped, by means of a canoe, and that from them the world was afterwards peopled.

According to the Peruvians, in consequence of a general inundation, occasioned by violent and continued rains, a universal destruction of the hu Of so general a calamity, from which only a man species took place, a few persons only exceptsingle family of all who lived then on the face of ed, who escaped into caves on the tops of the the earth was preserved, we might naturally expect mountains, into which they had previously conto find some memorials in the traditionary records veyed a stock of provisions, and a number of live of Pagan history, as well as in the sacred volume, animals, lest when the waters abated, the whole where its peculiar cause, and the circumstances race should have become extinct. Others of them which attended it, are so distinctly and fully re-affirm, that only six persons were saved, by means lated. Its magnitude and singularity could scarce- of a float or raft, and that from them all the inhab ly fail to make an indelible impression on the minds itants of the country are descended. They farther of the survivors, which would be communicated believe, that this event took place before there were from them to their children, and would not be any incas or kings among them, and when the easily effaced from the traditions even of their latest country was extremely populous. posterity. A deficiency in such traces of this awful event, though perhaps it might not serve entirely to invalidate our belief of its reality, would certainly tend considerably to weaken its claim to credibility; it being scarcely probable that the knowledge of it should be utterly lost to the rest of the world, and confined to the documents of the Jewish nation alone. What we might reasonably expect, has, accordingly, been actually and completely realised. The evidence which has been songs.

The Brazilians not only preserve the tradition of a deluge, but believe that the whole race of mankind perished in it, except one man and his sister; or, according to others, two brothers with their wives, who were preserved by climbing the highest trees on their loftiest mountains; and who afterwards became the heads of two different nations. The memory of this event they are even said to celebrate in some of their religious anthems cr

According to Josephus, there were a multitude | been often in battle, and has had particular success; of ancient authors, who concurred in asserting that they are therefore very capable of electing a genthe world had once been destroyed by a flood: eral. They can tell when a judge is assiduous in "This deluge," says he, "and the ark, are mention- his office, when he gives general satisfaction, and ed by all who have written Barbaric histories, one has never been charged with bribery; this is suffiof whom is Berosus the Chaldean. Speaking of cient for choosing a prætor. They are struck with this event, he affirms, that in Armenia, upon a the magnificence or riches of a fellow citizen: this mountain of the Corydeans, part of the ship is even is as much as is requisite for electing an ædile. yet remaining. It is a custom to scrape from off it But are the people able to manage an affair, to find some of the bitumen with which it was covered, out and to make a proper use of places, occasions, and to carry it about as a talisman against diseases. moments? No; this is beyond their natural capaJerome the Egyptian, who wrote the ancient his- city. Should we doubt of the people's natural tory of Phenicia, and Mnaseas, and many others, ability in respect to the discernment of merit, we likewise mention these events. Nicolaus Damas- need only cast our eyes on the continual series of cenus relates, that there is a great mountain in Ar- surprising elections made by the Athenians and menia, situated above Minyas, which is called Ba- Romans; which no one will surely attribute to ris, to which many persons fled at the time of the hazard. deluge, and were preserved. One in particular was conveyed in an ark to the very summit of the mountain, and a considerable part of the vessel still remains. He perhaps may be the man concerning whom Moses the Jewish lawgiver wrote."

As most citizens, though they have a capacity of choosing, are not, however, sufficiently qualified to be chosen; so the common people, though capable of calling others to an account for their administration, are incapable of the administration themWhen we thus meet with some traditions of a selves. The public business must, however, be deluge in almost every country, though the persons carried on, with a certain motion neither too quick saved from it are said, in those various accounts, to nor too slow. But the action of the common peohave resided in different districts widely separated ple is always either too remiss or too violent. In a from each other, we are constrained to allow that popular state the inhabitants are divided into cersuch a general concurrence of belief could never tain classes. In the manner of making this division have originated merely from accident. While the great legislators have signalized themselves; and mind is in this situation, scripture comes forward, on this the duration and prosperity of democracy and presenting a narrative, more simple, better con- have always depended. As the division of those nected, and bearing an infinitely greater resem- who have a right of suffrage is a fundamental law blance to authentic history, than any of those my-in a republic; so the manner of giving this suffrage thological accounts which occur in the traditions is another fundamental law. The suffrage by lot of Paganism, immediately flashes a conviction upon is natural to democracy; as that by choice is to the understanding, that this must be the true his- aristocracy. The former is a method that offends tory of those remarkable facts, which other nations no one; it allows each citizen to entertain reasonahave handed down to us, only through the medium ble hopes of serving his country; but as this meof allegory and fable. By the evidence adduced in thod is naturally defective, it has been the glorious this article, indeed, the moral certainty of the Mosaic endeavor of the most eminent legislators to reguhistory of the flood appears to be established on a late and amend it. The law which determines the basis sufficiently firm to bid defiance to the cavils manner of giving the suffrages is likewise fundaof skepticism. "Let the ingenuity of unbelief first mental in a democracy. The people's suffrages account satisfactorily for this universal agreement ought, without doubt, says Montesquieu, to be pubof the Pagan world; and she may then, with a lic; and this should be considered as a fundamengreater degree of plausibility, impeach the truth of tal law of democracy. The lower sort of people the scriptural narrative of the deluge.” ought to be directed by those of higher rank, and restrained within bounds by the gravity of certain DEMOCRACY. A form of government, or personages. Hence by rendering the suffrages constitution of a state, by virtue of which the sove- secret in the Roman republic all was lost; it was reignty, or supreme authority, is lodged in the peo- no longer possible to direct a populace that sought ple, who exercise the same by persons of their own its own destruction. It is likewise a fundamental order, deputed for that purpose. In a democracy, law in democracy, that the people should have the therefore, the people are in some respects the sove-sole power to enact laws; and yet there are a thoureign, and others the subject. In this kind of government, the people in whom the supreme power resides, ought to do of themselves whatever they conveniently can, and what they cannot well do, they must commit to the management of ministers; but it is a fundametal maxim in a democracy, that the people should choose their ministers, that is, their magistrates, whether the election be made by themselves, as at Athens, or by some magistrates deputed for that purpose, as was customary at Rome upon certain occasions. The people, says Montesquieu are extremely well qualified for choosing those, whom they are to intrust with part of their authority. They can tell when a person has

sand occasions, in which it is necessary the senate should have a power of decreeing; and it is often proper to make some trial of a law before it is established. In this respect the constitutions of Rome and Athens were extremely wise. The decrees of the senate had the force of laws for the space of a year, and did not become perpetual till they were ratified by the consent of the people.

The principle of democracy is virtue. When Sylla wanted to restore Rome to its liberty, this unhappy city was incapable of receiving it. She had only some feeble remains of virtue, and as this was every day diminishing, instead of being roused out of her lethargy, by Cæsar, Tiberius, Caius,

Claudius, Nero, Domitian, she every day rivetted ber chains; the blows she struck were levelled against the tyrants, but not at the tyranny. The politic Greeks, who lived under a popular government, knew no other support but virtue. The modern inhabitants of that country are entirely taken up with manufactures, commerce, finances, riches, and luxury. The principle of democracy is corrupted, not only when the spirit of equality is extinct, but likewise when they indulge a spirit of extreme equality, and when every citizen wants to be upon a level with those he has chosen to command him. Thus the people, incapable of bearing the very power they have intrusted, want to do every thing of themselves, to debate for the senate, to execute for the magistrate, and to strip the judges. When this is the case, virtue can no longer subsist in the republic. Democracy has, therefore, two excesses to avoid; the spirit of inequality, which leads to aristocracy or monarchy; and the spirit of extreme equality, which leads to despotic power, as the latter is completed by conquest. As distant as heaven is from earth, so is the true spirit of equality from that of extreme equality. The former does not consist in managing, so that every body should command, or that no one should be commanded, but in obeying and commanding our equals. It endeavors not to be without a master; but that its masters should be none but its equals. In the state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal; but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by means of the laws. Such is the difference between a well and an ill regulated democracy, that in the former men are equal only as citizens, but in the latter they are equal also as magistrates, senators, judges, fathers, husbands, and masters. The natural place of virtue is near to liberty; but it is not nearer to extreme liberty than to servitude.

The most flourishing democracies in ancient times were those of Rome and Athens, and in latter days, the republic of Geneva in Switzerland; the modern republics, as Venice, and the United Provinces, were rather aristocracies than democracies.

DENSITY. Closeness, or compactness. Density and rarity are opposite or relative terms, both referring to the quantity of matter contained in a given space. Take two vessels, A, and B, of equal capacities. Fill A loosely with cotton, and suppose it to contain one pound weight of cotton; let two pounds of cotton be forced into the vessel B; then the cotton in A is said to be rare with respect to the cotton in B, and the cotton in B is said to be dense with respect to the cotton in A. Also the density of the cotton in B is said to be double the density of the cotton in A, because it contains a double quantity of it in the like space; and if three pounds of cotton were forced into the vessel B, then the density of it would be treble that of the cotton in A. So that the density is proportionate to the quantity of matter contained in a given space. It is evident, that if the capacity of the vessel B be double that of the vessel A, then, in order to produce in B a density of cotton double that of the cotton in A, four pounds of cotton must be forced into B; for if in this case the capacity of B be supposed to be divided into two parts, each part would be equal to A, and each part would contain two pounds of cotton.

This explanation, which we have for the sake of perspicuity applied to the filling of vessels with cotton, must be applied to all other bodies of any other kind. Hence we learn the following evident and general deductions, or theorems, concerning the relative proportions of the densities, the bulks, and the weights of bodies.

In the preceding paragraphs we have taken it for granted, that the quantity of matter is proportionate to its weight; and, indeed, with bodies of the same kind of matter this can hardly be doubted; for instance, a lump of gold which weighs six pounds, must contain twice as much matter as is contained in another lump of gold which weighs three pounds. But with matter of different density, it is impossible to say with certainty, that the weights are proportional to the quantities of matter. The weight of a body is measured by the force with which the substance of that body is attracted by the earth; therefore, if the attraction between the earth and a body A, be greater than the attraction between the earth and another body B, then those bodies may contain equal quantities of matter, and have unequal weights. But, in truth, we have no determinate knowledge of the real and intimate essence of matter. We distinguish matter, or boDEMURRAGE. Is an allowance made to the dies, by their properties; and it is impossible to say, master of a ship by the merchants, for being de- whether matter consists of something essential and tained in port longer than the time appointed and endowed with such properties, or is only an asagreed for his departure. The rate of this allow-semblage of those properties. The most general ance is generally settled in the charter party.

DEMONSTRATION. In Logic, a series of syllogisms, all whose premises are either definitions, self-evident truths, or propositions already established.

DEMURRER. Is a kind of pause or stop put to the proceeding of an action upon a point of difficulty, which must be determined by the court before any farther proceedings can be had therein.

DENOMINATOR. The parts into which the whole is divided, the number of which is expressed by the numerator of a fraction; but in decimals, the denominator is understood to contain as many ciphers as there are terms in the numerator, and is not written.

idea is that, other things being equal, the quantity of matter is proportionate to its sensible weight; and in this we must for the present acquiesce.

The limits of density are likewise unknown to us. Air is one of the most elastic of the ponderable fluids known: and experiments show, that a given quantity of air may be compressed into a space smaller and smaller, (and of course it may be rendered more and more dense) in proportion to the power which is applied to compress it; so that with a double force it may be contracted into half the space; with a treble force, it may be contracted into a third part of the original space, and

so on; and human art has not been able to ascer- | counted according to the number of miles in a tain how far this condensation may be carried on. degree proper to the parallel the ship is under. It has also been observed, that by removing the pressure a quantity of air will be enabled to expand itself; nor has any limit been discovered to this expansion. Other bodies are compressed, and become more dense in consequence of the application of an adequate force; but they do not follow the same regularity as air; nor do they recover their entire original bulk when the pressure is removed. All metallic bodies, by pressing, laminating, or hammering, may be permanently reduced into a smaller space, or rendered more dense; but it is not in our power to say how far their density may be increased.

DENTIFRICE. Any substance to rub the teeth with, in order to clean or fasten them. Dentifrices are commonly employed in the form of powder, which are either purely mechanical or chemical in their operation. It is usual for dentists to keep their tooth-powders as a secret; but the composition of most of them is very well known to medical men, though concealed from the public in general. Very little skill is required to form a good tooth-powder for ordinary use, provided care be taken not to admit ingredients which destroy the enamel of the teeth. If persons use them daily, the dentifrices should be less harsh or gritty, and contain less acid matter, than when they are used only once a week.

Many persons are so averse from all dentifrices, that they clean their teeth with a hard brush alone, or the end of a root prepared on purpose, rinsing their mouth afterwards with water. Now and then, however, it is requisite to scrape the tartareous matter from the roots of the teeth, which is called scaling them; else, it will be impossible to preserve their natural whiteness, and keep them fixed closely to the gums. The tartar is also injurious in decaying the teeth, when it accumulates for a long time.

DENTIST. Is an artisan who confines himself to the extraction of teeth, and to several operations required by their defects, redundancies, accidents, or disorders. The word dentist is French, and the most popular practitioners in this department have come from France; so, likewise, have the most ample and regular treatises on the subject, some of which are tediously prolix and frivolous. The head surgeons in London deem this branch of their art beneath notice, and generally decline interfering in it except by giving their advice occasionally: though manual operations on the teeth, and the mechanical formation of these organs, in cases of defect, constitute a very profitable business in such a large metropolis; so that dentists are often known to get several thousand pounds per annum by their profession.

DEPARTURE. In Navigation, is the easting or westing of a ship in respect of the meridian it departed or sailed from; or it is the difference of longitude, either east or west, between the present meridian the ship is under, and that where the last reckoning or observation was made. This departure, any where but under the equator, must be

DEPORTATION. A kind of banishment in use even among the Romans; by virtue of which the condemned person was sent to a foreign uninhabited country, usually an island, his estate confiscated, and himself deprived of the rights of a Roman citizen. This punishment differs from other kinds of banishment in this, that the person thus punished is not permitted to choose his place of exile. During the French revolution, this punishment was revived in lieu of the guillotine. The merit of its restoration has been at different times ascribed to Boulay, to the bishop of Autun, and to Talot. Towards the end of Robespierre's administration, this punishment was most frequent.

According to the French penal code of twelfth February, 1810, deportation is even now one of the punishments established by law in France; but, nevertheless, it is not easily put in execution. It is ranked as the third degree of infamous punishments and gives rise to civil death. The person deported loses the control of his property, is deprived of the power of making contracts, and his heirs enter into possession of his estate in the same manner as though he were actually deceased; yet the government can grant him, in the place of his banishment, which is always assigned without the main land of European France, the ordinary civil privileges, or a portion of the same. If a person deported return to France without the leave of the government, he becomes immediately liable to the punishment of hard labor for life. If he have fled to a foreign country and soil, and ever comes again into the power of the French government, he is again remitted to the place of his banishment. Deportation, or transportation, is also one of the legal punishments in England.

DEPRESSION OF THE POLE. In sailing or travelling towards the equator a person is said to depress the pole: because as many degrees as he approaches nearer the equator, so many degrees will the pole be nearer the horizon. This arises from the spherical figure of the earth. When a star is under the horizon, it is termed the depression of that star under the horizon. The altitude or depression of a star is an arch of the vertical line intercepted between the horizon and the star.

DEPTH OF THE SEA. As to the bottom of the basin of the sea, it seems to have inequalities similar to those which the surface of continents exhibits; if it were dried up, it would present mountains, valleys, and plains. It is, moreover, inhabited almost throughout its whole extent by an immense quantity of testaceous animals, or covered with sand and gravel. It was thus that Donati found the bottom of the Adriatic Sea; the bed of testaceous animals there, according to him, is several hundred feet in thickness. The celebrated diver Pescecola, whom the Emperor Frederick II. employed to descend into the strait of Messina, saw there, with horror, enormous polypi attached to the rocks, the arms of which, being several yards long, were more than sufficient to strangle a man. a great many places, the madrepores form a kind

In

of petrified forest fixed at the bottom of the sea, and frequently too, this bottom plainly presents different layers of rocks and earth.

The dervises called Mevelavites are a Mahommedan order of religious; the chief or founder of which was one Mevelava. They are very numerThe granite rises up in sharp pointed masses. ous. Their chief monastery is that near Cogni in Near Marseilles, marble is dug up from a sub-ma-Natolia, where the general makes his residence, rine quarry. There are also bituminous springs, and where all the assemblies of the order are held; and even springs of fresh water, that spout up from the other houses being all dependent on this, by a the depths of the ocean; and in the Gulf of Spezia, privilege granted to this monastery under Ottoman a great spout or fountain of fresh water is seen to I. These dervises affect humility and charity. rise like a liquid hill. Similar springs furnish the They always go bare-legged and open-breasted, inhabitants of the town of Aradus with their ordin- and frequently burn themselves with hot irons, to ary beverage. inure themselves to patience. They always fast on On the southern coast of Cuba, to the southwest Wednesdays, eating nothing on those days till after of the port of Batabano, in the bay of Xagua, at sun-set. Tuesdays and Fridays they hold meettwo or three miles from the land, springs of freshings, at which the superior presides. One of them water gush up with such force in the midst of the plays all the while on a flute, and the rest dance, salt, that small boats cannot approach them with turning their bodies round and round with the safety; the deeper you draw the water the fresher greatest swiftness imaginable. This practice they you find it. It has been observed, that in the neigh- observe with great strictness, in memory, it is said, borhood of steep coasts, the bottom of the sea also of Mevelava their patriarch turning miraculously sinks down suddenly to a considerable depth, round for the space of four days, without any food whilst near a low coast, and one of gentle declivity, or refreshment, his companion Hamsa playing on it is only gradually that the sea deepens. the flute; after which he fell into an ecstasy, and therein received revelations, for the establishment of his order. They believe the flute an instrument consecrated by Jacob and the shepherds of the Old Testament, because they sang the praises of God upon it. They profess poverty, chastity, and obedience; but if they choose to go out and marry, thay are always allowed. The generality of dervises are mountebanks: some apply themselves to legerdemain, postures, &c., to amuse the people; others pretend to sorcery and magic: but all of them, contrary to Mahomet's precept, are said to drink wine, brandy, and other strong liquors, to give them the degree of gayety their order requires. The dervises are great travellers; and under pretence of preaching, and propagating their faith, are continually passing from one place to another: on which account they have been frequently used as spies.

There are some places in the sea where no bottom has yet been found. But we must not conclude that the sea is really bottomless; an idea, which, if not absurd, is, at least, by no means conformable to the analogies of natural science. The mountains of continents seem to correspond with what are called the abysses of the sea; but now the highest mountains do not rise to 20,000 feet. It is true, that they have been wasted down and lessened by the action of the elements; it may, therefore, be reasonably concluded, that the sea is not beyond 30,000 feet in depth; but it is impossible to find the bottom even at one third of this depth with our little instruments. The greatest depth that has been tried to be measured, is that found in the northern ocean by Lord Mulgrave; he heaved a very heavy sounding lead, and gave out along with it cable-rope to the length of 4680 feet, without finding the bottom.

DESCENSION. In Astronomy, right descension is an arch of the equinoctial, intercepted between the next equinoctial point and the intersection of the meridian, passing through the centre of the object, at its setting, in a right sphere. Oblique descension, is an arch of the equinoctial, intercepted between the next equinoctial point and the horizon, passing through the centre of the object, at its setting, in an oblique sphere.

DESCENT. In general, is the tendency of a body from a higher to a lower place; thus all bodies, unless otherwise determined by a force superior to their gravity, descend towards the centre of the earth.

DERVIS, or DERVICH. A name given to a sort of monks among the Turks, who lead a very austere life, and profess extreme poverty; though they are allowed to marry. The word originally signifies a beggar, or a person who has nothing; and because the religious, and particularly the followers of Mevelava, profess not to possess any thing, they call both the religious in general, and the Mevelavites in perticular, dervises. There are in Egypt several kinds: those that are in convents are a kind of religious order and live retired; though there are of these some who travel and return again to their convents. Some take this character, and yet live with their families, and exercise their trades: of this kind are the dancing dervises at Damascus, who go once or twice a week to a little uninhabited DESCRIPTION. The act of delineating, or convent, and perform their extraordinary exercises. representing the figure of any thing by a plan, to There is a third sort of them who travel about the country, and beg, or rather oblige people to give, for whenever they sound their horn something must be given them. The people of these orders, in Egypt, wear an octagonal badge, of a greenish white alabaster, at their girdles, and a high stiff cap without any thing round it. The dervises in Persia, are called abdals, servants of God.

be presented to the eye. The act of representing a thing by words or by signs, or the passage containing such representation; a representation of names, nature or properties, that gives to another a view of the thing. Homer abounds with beautiful and striking descriptions.

DESERT or DESART. A wild, uncultivated,